Chris Grove – Tamar Belle Heritage Railway Group

Chris Grove – Tamar Belle Heritage Railway Group

Chris Grove – Tamar Belle Heritage Railway Group

Chris Grove – Tamar Belle Heritage Railway Group

38 years ago, Chris Grove was living and working in London as a chartered surveyor, when he spotted an advertisement in The Times for the auction of a station house at Bere Ferrers…

He was familiar with the area and had always had a keen interest in railways; property auctions were rare in those days and the opportunity sparked his interest. Following a visit to his bank manager, he drove 225 miles to Plymouth for the auction at the Duke of Cornwall. That evening, he returned to London in torrential rain and in a state of complete shock, realising he had just bought a railway station in Devon.

And so started Chris’s version of the John Hadfield novel ‘Love on a Branch Line’, as he escaped to his Devon bolthole whenever he could manage it. He had previously spent several years working in railway site redevelopment for British Rail Property Board and had a good insight into the work that was required. He successfully renovated and sold the station master’s house in the first year and then concentrated on restoring the former booking hall for a holiday home, initially as a single storey cottage. Five years later he converted it to his current residence, innovatively employing a patented roof truss system that he was using on his new build designs in London. The company Chris was employed by met economic difficulties in the 1990s and at that point Chris decided to leave London and make Bere Ferrers his home. With more time on his hands he set about rejuvenating the former railway site in earnest.

In 1988, when Chris heard that a LSWR signal box at Pinhoe was being decommissioned, he was immediately interested. He negotiated its purchase and relocation to Bere Ferrers, the only problem being that the box had to continue functioning until 10:30pm on its last day, but had to be completely removed by 9:30am the following morning, before the first train passed through. Chris was always ready for a challenge and he worked on stripping out the internal workings of the box until 2:00am. He then returned at 7:00am with a lorry and crane ready to lift the box out, only to discover that the lifting cradle was missing, necessitating a quick return to Exeter! A JCB on standby with instructions to demolish anything remaining at 9:00am, further intensified the pressure. However, needless to say, the box arrived at Bere Ferrers intact, and is now installed at the end of the Tamar Valley branch line platform.

2 June 1990, marked the centenary of the opening of ‘Beer Ferris’ station by the Plymouth, Devonport and South Western Junction Railway on the Lydford to Devonport line. Chris could obviously not let the day pass unmarked, so he laid a 700-foot demonstration track and borrowed Alfred, a steam engine from the Bodmin & Wenford Railway, ensuring steam returned to the Tamar Valley for one weekend. However, now that the track was in place, Chris felt it should be used on a more permanent basis, and so there followed a whole series of purchases - two carriages from Norwich arrived and were converted into a successful B&B (now four carriages converted to provide dining coach, saloon and two sleeping cars); three vintage Hunslett diesel engines and a subsequent ‘Hilda’ Peckett steam Percy-lookalike, which is currently undergoing restoration. An unusual addition is a turntable from Plymouth dockyard, which had to travel by quite a circuitous route to Bere Ferrers, as there wasn’t enough clearance below the old Crownhill footbridge on the A386.

By this time a small group of railway enthusiasts was involved with the renovations at Bere Ferrers and the assembling collection of railway paraphernalia signalled the start of the Tamar Belle Railway Heritage Centre. A 70-foot LMS sleeping carriage dating from 1950 was delivered to the site - unfortunately facing the wrong way. A burst tyre and a broken axle later, plus a couple of cranes, and a lot of time and patience saw it installed in position and ready to be converted to house the heritage group’s information centre. Installing a working signalling system has been one of the latest projects for the Tamar Belle Railway Heritage volunteers and they now have 12 operational signals in a converted cattle truck, controlling three trains shuttling on the one line. Chris and the Tamar Belle volunteers have worked tirelessly to recreate a representation of the railways in the last century, assisted by donations and grants from The Key Fund and West Devon Borough Council. The list of salvaged items which have been put to good use at the centre is endless, and the result is a treasure trove of nostalgia for railway enthusiasts, school parties, B&B guests and all other visitors.